CamfordCampaign > History of Victorian London and the World 1837 - Victoria becomes queen at the age of 18 after the death of her uncle, William IV 1838 - Slavery abolished in the British empire; the London-Birmingham steam railway opens 1839-1842- First Opium War between Britain and China 1840- Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield ... Princess Victoria is born and granted the title Princess Royal ... New Zealand becomes a British colony through the Treaty of Waitangi, no longer part of South New Wales 1841- Birth of Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, heir apparent 1842- Treaty of Nanking 1843- Birth of Princess Alice 1844- Birth of Prince Alfred 1845- Irish potato famine begins. Soon after, rise of discrimation against Irish immigrants 1845-1847- Parliament authorizes 8000 miles of railway lines; railway companies needed charters (200k pounds or US$1 million) but once operational, little government regulation 1846- Birth of Princess Helena 1846, 1847- ether used by American dentist, William Morton; chloroform used by James Young Simpson 1848- Irish nationalist John Mitchel arrested for treason, rise of violent Irish resistance ... Chartist movement peaks, leaders move to trade unions and cooperative societies ... Public Health Acts for sanitation ... Birth of Princess Louise 1849- Karl Marx moves to London at the age of 41 1850- Birth of Prince Arthur 1851- Great Exhibition opens at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London 1853- Birth of Prince Leopold 1854- Britain and France declare war on Russia - the Crimean War begins, ending in 1856 1857- Bengal army mutinies in India, ending East India Company rule, beginning direct British government in 1858 ... The Whigs became the Liberals, opposing the Conservatives in the House of Commons. ... Birth of Prince Beatrice 1858 - Joseph Bazalgette designs sewage system, then the Thames Embankment which housed sewers, water pipes, and the London Underground 1859- Charles Darwin publishes 'On the Origin of Species' ... Victoria and Albert's first grandchild, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, is born, who later becomes William II, German Emperor. 1861- Queen-Consort Prince Albert dies at age 42. Queen Victoria refuses to go out in public for many years, and when she did, she wore a widow's bonnet instead of the crown. 1863- Prince Albert Edward of Wales marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark at Windsor 1865- Lewiss Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published 1867- Joseph Lister writes on antiseptics based on French biologist Louis Pasteur's germ theory (carbolic acid or "phenol") ... Karl Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital ... The Constitution Act is passed and British North America becomes the Dominion of Canada 1869- Suez Canal opens, linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea 1871- George Hudson, 'Railway King' of Britain, dies 1872 -- CAMPAIGN START -- 1876- Victoria declared Empress of India ... Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone 1877 - Princess Alice becomes Grand Duchess of Hesse when her husbnd succeeds as Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse 1878- Congress of Berlin aims to settle European problems ... Princess Alice dies. Princess Louise's husband, Marquis of Lorne, appointed Governor-General of Canada ... First incandescent lightbulb by Joseph Wilson Swan. 1880s- gas network for lighting and heating 1901 - Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward VII Notable statesmen: Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, and Lord Salisbury Notable writers: Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlotte Brontë and her sisters, Robert Louis Stevenson and William Makepeace Thackeray Notable musical theatre: Gilbert and Sullivan Astley's Amphitheatre (Lambeth, London) - permanent structure for ciruses and such, managed by Andrew Ducrow and William Batty, the latter of who built at 14k person arena in Kensington Gardens "Spectacles" - paranormal events such as mesmerism, communication with the dead (mediumship or channeling), ghost conjuring carried out before a crowd and with participants Steam railways, steam ships "Waterloo Teeth" - real human teeth set into hand-carved pieces of ivory from hippopotamus or walrus jaws To merge in: http://www.thesteampunkempire.com/profiles/blogs/a-victorian-timeline http://mateengreenway.com/steampunk/Space1889timeline.htm